Hoping to race Enduro next year and building a bike at the moment. What type of chain ring would people recommend?.

Thanks,

what do you mean by “type”? Size? Ramped for a double? and so on

As you can tell i’m quite new to the whole build thing so any help would be great :D. I’d rather not go with the standard 3 ring crankset. Is there a double?. I’m thinking in terms of weight and also on my last bike i never used the 1st or third ring, depending on how you look at it.

If you’re flush, SRAM XX1 seems to be all the rave right now

Eh no i’m afraid not lol. But i won’t skimp on it either.

do you mean gravity enduro? If so I would suggest a double, I saw a lot of people on 1 x 10 this year and they seemed to struggle with the long uphills in the transitions. I would also go with a bash, mine has some serious gouges on it from the more technical sections

Great, thanks for that.

Cheers mate.

I’ve run 1×10 all year for Enduro duties, including SuperEnduro. I run a 36 with 11-36 cassette and was fine all season. Depends if you are comfortable pushing a big gear or prefer to sit and spin, in which case a double might be better.

Thanks andyrm. I’ll keep that in mind. I’d say i’d probably go with the double for my first season, see how i fare and what’s comfortable then possibly look at a single.

The new Hope IBR looks good for 1×10

SLX double and a sensible cassette will cover most bases and not cost the earth…

As above with a Stinger roller type chain device should be fine.

Entirely depends on you and your legs. 1X10 is probably something you wan to work towards. Also which enduros and on what bike? Any 3 ring crankset can have the outer removed and replaced with a bash. 22/36 worked for me

I’ve just bought a 2009 Rockymountian Slayer

Slight hijack: Would you guys choose Stinger or C-guide on a 2×10 setup? Or maybe something else entirely?

I have the Canyon equivalent of a Stinger on my Nerve AM, I am happy with it for 2×10

I’ve got a 1×10, but I don’t race. I do do 40+ mile Lakes loops on it without dying though.

32t chainring and a propper 32t chain device, as I wanted as much ground clerance as possible. If I had a higher BB then mayeb I’d have considdered a double with a 38t, but that would eat into already minimal ground clerance, add weight and icnreace complexity. Being 32t combined with a 12-36t cassette it’s just low enough for climbing too. I occasionaly want a higher gear for more open decents, but for anything else I find the gearing ideal and rearely end up at either extream of the cassette.

The cool kids will say 1×10. Buuuut… This is rider specific, and you can’t forget about the climbs in enduro, sometimes the races are pretty physically demanding.

Frinstance, at the Dudes enduro last week, I took a 2×9 bike, and I’m very glad I did, because doing the 2 laps (practice and race day) took a lot out of my legs- it was a long, draggy climb and would have been no fun for me on 1×10. Lots of people pushing up a lot of the climb, and to be fair still getting round the route in time, but riding bikes is better than pushing bikes, and getting to the top in good condition is better for going down.

(fwiw, it’s not just us unfit people that think this, Tracy Moseley says the same)

Good point there Northwind.

The thing with Enduro (unlike say XC where there is a pretty standard skinny whippet roadie build!), is the range of physiques competing. You could have an XC rider who has polished up their technical skills being pretty good, or a DH racer who has worked on fitness, or a trail rider getting into racing after years of being just out on the trails.

Each will have very different muscle development from their different riding styles and from a varied physiological start point (ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph).

Some will be good at “sit & spin” climbing, some will be hulking beasts like Mark Weir who can pull a 38t single ring.

It’s a varied thing and so by definition there’s no hard & fast rule. Take a good hard honest look at how you ride, how often you use the granny, what cadences you can push, how your knees feel at the end of a big ride etc etc.

Oh and if you go 2×10 the C-Guide is great.

Hope my amazing “catch all” and probably quite confusing non-answer helps…….. :-/

Some pretty good advice there guys. Thanks a lot!!